ASK any security officer in a department store to explain what happens when a shoplifter is apprehended. In many cases, the shoplifter will offer to pay for the stolen goods to avoid criminal proceedings.

David Blunkett took approximately £200 of our money to buy a railway ticket for someone who had no entitlement to such benefits. That adds up to theft, and no amount of bleating from Blunkett that he didn't know what he was doing could persuade me otherwise.

When it was discovered that his department "fast-tracked" a visa application for his friend's nanny, his Cabinet post became untenable and Mr Blunkett was relegated to the back-benches. The loss of high office is as much as we could hope for because it doesn't appear to be a criminal offence to use undue ministerial influence to get favoured treatment for your friends.

However, the railway ticket is another matter. There is no place in Parliament for an elected member who uses taxpayers' money for their friends' benefit and Mr Blunkett's guilt, or innocence, can only be tested in a court of law.

I entrust Tony Blair with my taxes (grudgingly) and expect him to press criminal charges when, prima facie, there is a good case to answer. Get the police involved and let's see Blunkett in the Old Bailey.

Or would Blair prefer to "draw another line under it".

He is good at that.

Brian West,

York Road,

Elvington,

York.

Updated: 11:08 Wednesday, December 22, 2004